DARTMOOR National Park - an area of great natural beauty located mainly in the Southern half of the county of Devon - packs an enormous amount of interest into quite a small area. It is actually never more than 30 miles across and takes up just 368 square miles, but that's still plenty large enough to get lost in and people often do. There is a bleak and wonderful wilderness feel about the high moor which is quite different from the deeply incised valleys, and it is these contrasts which help to create a truly dynamic experience for ramblers and photographers who venture here. You don't get 4,000ft mountains which take hours to hike up and down, but you do get really interesting granite tors, boulders, rockscapes and fantastic views.

IN this collection of images gathered from a variety of my digital cameras over the years ranging from little P&S to DSLR and various smartphones; and I'm more than happy to 'help' the small sensor cameras do what they were never expected to be able to do. In this gallery I have endeavoured to capture the essence of Dartmoor as we see it today, not just the rocks and open spaces but including the towns and villages as well as the landscapes, and I've added descriptive captions and occasional links where I feel they may be useful. Please visit my "Dartmoor in Detail" gallery later for more pictures of the main sites of interest.

GEOLOGICALLY, Dartmoor is an old, exposed and heavily weathered granite landform which rises to approximately 2,030ft in the North. Essentially an intrusive batholith from the late Carboniferous/ early Permian Period (some 280 mybp. when this part of the Earth's crust was located down near the equator.) Since then the top layers have eroded away, leaving the moor flanked by an aureole of metamorphic rocks which became mineral-rich when 'baked' at the time of the intrusion, and which have subsequently attracted mining down through the ages.

IT is now thought that Dartmoor itself had a small Ice Cap during the coldest part of the last ice Age as evidenced by ** small over-deepened and U-Shaped valleys, proto-cirques, morrianes, and hummocky Thufur terrain suggestive of freeze-thaw processes. Today some 2,000mm (79") of rain falls annually on the high moor, and we see valleys with active streams of beautiful clear water due to the high rainfall, rocky tors (exposed granite outcrops on the top of the higher hills), peat bogs, moody weather, sometimes severe so do take care. There's an even moodier time-scape going back to the Iron and Bronze ages with a good measure of medieval and 18th & 19th century folklore, which makes Dartmoor a paradise for photographers who like to put some moodiness into a picture.

I really would encourage you to visit the Dartmoor National Park in the county of Devon here South West of England and bring your camera. Photographic opportunities abound whether you want to access them from nearby roads or enjoy a hike into the remote and quiet centre of the moor where the sounds of modern life can be pleasingly absent. (When did you last hear silence and use your ears without filtering out the ambient noise of modern living?)

The light is always changing and rewards the patient photographer. I don't recall anyone ever saying it was a waste of time carrying a tripod and some ND Grad filters (really great for Dartmoor skies) or that they came back home empty handed. At 50 degrees North, Dartmoor is ideally positioned for directional light which is not too harsh, so study an Ordnance Survey map of the area and plan your photographic trips to take the season and time of day into account. Often a place will look quite different in "Golden Hour" early morning or evening light and a sense of bleakness at one time of the day might be altogether different at another. Above all, try to be imaginative and look for relevant secondary items of interest in the foreground to help your photos stand out from the crowd. Remember too that less really can be more with simple sunrise and sunset compositions.

Most recent photos at the bottom end of the gallery.
* For commercial use of any of these images please email imagseerx@gmail.com
Dartmoor lovers and organisations promoting the wellbeing of the moor are welcome to link directly
All Photos Copyright 2009 - 2022 John Farrar. Many more in my "Dartmoor in Detail" Gallery.

** http://dro.dur.ac.uk/9653/1/9653.pdf?DDD14+